about JDRF

JDRF Relief Response for Hurricane Katrina Victims

Diabetes Emergency Checklists (.pdf download, 3 MB)

Diabetes Sample School Care Forms (.pdf download, 91 KB)

New York, NY, September 2, 2005 — The events of the past few days in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama have touched us deeply as individuals, and as an organization. 

To the best of our knowledge, we have not lost any employees or volunteers to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.  But many have lost their homes and possessions.  And among the hundreds of thousands of people impacted in those states are countless families with type 1 diabetes, now forced to deal with the daily issues of this disease in the most difficult of circumstances.       

We have received thousands of calls and email messages from our staff, volunteers, donors, corporate partners, and advocates around the world generously offering their assistance to those effected by the hurricane.  Our goal is to provide immediate and impactful help, in a coordinated manner, for those within JDRF and the larger community of those with a connection to type 1 diabetes.  At the same time, we want to make certain that we also provide for the longer-term care of those with type 1 in the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina.  To that end, we have initiated a coordinated relief program.  

First,  we are working with a number of organizations and corporate partners to make certain the specific needs of people with type 1 diabetes in the affected areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are addressed.  FEMA has determined that at the present time, adequate supplies of materials of immediate importance to people with type 1 diabetes - including blood glucose meters, syringes, insulin, and other materials - are available to emergency personnel.  However, we are working through the American Red Cross, and coordinating with local support and medical organizations and diabetes care groups, to make certain the situation regarding supplies remains positive, particularly in those areas that will be receiving significant numbers of people evacuating their homes.  As is typically the case in these situations, the Red Cross is best equipped to ensure that supplies reach the people who need them.  For employees, specifically, we will be establishing a JDRF fund to coordinate donations to the applicable relief agency.

Second, in anticipation that people impacted by the hurricane might be dealing with managing type 1 diabetes themselves or for loved ones in circumstances and surroundings very different from what they are accustomed to over the next few weeks or months, we are assembling "information" care packages to help them through that period.  Working with our corporate partners in the diabetes industry, JDRF researchers and physicians, we will provide information through a variety of on-line, telephone, email, and personal channels, including our Online Diabetes Support volunteers.  These materials are intended to help people over a more extended period of time, rather than those requiring immediate assistance.  

Third, having created programs we believe will address the immediate concerns of the  type 1 community in those areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina, we believe it important that JDRF also provide an opportunity to help all those effected by this disaster.  So we are talking with American Red Cross about enabling them to collect supplies and donations for hurricane victims at each of JDRF's Walk to Cure Diabetes sites in 2005 - a program that was instituted and quite successful in the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001.  We are also exploring similar activities on a local level, at some point in the future, in the areas most heavily impacted by Katrina.     

We are creating a section on the JDRF website to coordinate support for the hurricane victims.  On it, you can indicate your interest in providing assistance.  Please do not send supplies directly to our offices: JDRF will direct your intentions to one of the professional local agencies we are partnering with to ensure that they are quickly provided to those who need them in the impacted areas.  Similarly, you can email offers of support to JDRF at info@jdrf.org, attention hurricane relief, or call 1-800-223-1138.

Thanks you, as always, for your compassion and your dedication.

Note on JDRF Staff and Volunteers in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama
We are providing both immediate and longer-term support to JDRF staff and volunteers directly impacted by Hurricane Katrina.  In the next few days, when our staff there are able to better assess exactly what is needed for themselves and their families, we will communicate how staff and friends of the organization can help out.  This will probably entail everything from temporary shelter (homes or vacation homes in the area that staff and their families might use), to clothing, food, medical supplies, and other services, and financial assistance.  At the appropriate time in the future, we will be relocating staff to either nearby JDRF offices or to temporary facilities, so that we might continue to support both the day-to-day and longer-term needs of type 1 patients and their families in those states.